Centered in the Saddle

I really like doing these quarterly goal reviews, even if no one reads them. It keeps me focused and on track with things I want to be doing. And I really enjoy checking things off the list! I can’t believe we’re now in the 4th quarter. This year has gone by so, so fast already, and with Q4 being busy at work and the holidays I know it’s going to fly by.

RIDING

• Weekly lessons; average two dressage and two jumping per month. Sticking to weekly lessons. I entered self-imposed dressage bootcamp during my half-lease with Stryder.
• Complete at least one event. YEP AND WE WON.
• Read the USEA rule book, in full. Ahem. Still not done. Now that winter is coming I will have plenty of dark, cold nights to read this.
• Budget and save for 3+ competitions this spring/summer/fall. Done! I managed to eke out 2 combined tests and one horse trials PLUS two months of half-leasing. Now I have spent all the money I saved and I’m back to saving mode, big time.
• Buy a saddle.

HEALTH

• Exercise 3-4 times per week (including riding lessons) for a total of 180 workouts/days with exercise in 2017. This is going pretty well. I was riding 3 times per week, plus I’ve been continuing to focus on strength training. Now that it’s going to be cooler weather I want to run again before it starts getting dark too early in the evenings after work (and no, I won’t be running in the mornings. I am not a morning person at all.)
• Run a 5k in the fall. Then decide if I want to run more. Still want to do this. Probably later this month, if I can get a few training runs in pretty soon here. My running shoes are getting pretty worn out, and after wearing them hiking on vacation – including literally walking up a river for 1.5 miles – they’re getting pretty sad.

BLOG

• Blog at least twice per week. Still no, but oh well. I write when I have stuff to write about. Regardless, I have fun following along with other bloggers.
• Continue chronicling my foray into evening with monthly installments on Eventing Nation (see the first and second and third installments). This sort of petered out. They weren’t getting much attention, so why keep writing stuff people don’t care to read? That’s okay. I tried it.

OTHER

• Unsubscribe from all the spam emails I get (and cause me to waste time every day deleting them). I keep doing this in waves. It’s great.
• Find a good organization to volunteer with once a month. Have not done this. I would still like to.
• Clean out my closet/dresser and get rid of clothes that I don’t wear, are worn out, or are no longer in style. Done!
• Plan my wedding and have fun doing it. Avoid stress as much as possible during the planning process. Still going strong on this one. I was feeling extremely uninspired when it came to wedding planning after our vacation so I’m just not really doing it for awhile. If it’s not fun, I’m not forcing it. We have all our major vendors set up and plenty of time to figure out the rest.
• Write in my 5 Year Journal. Yes! I love this. It has become a very relaxing part of my nightly routine.

I’m feeling ready to finish up 2017 strong!